


A Pokemon Creation Myth

by Ilphros



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Diamond & Pearl & Platinum | Pokemon Diamond Pearl Platinum Versions
Genre: Complete, Gen, Tags Are Hard, Wordcount: 1.000-3.000, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-21
Updated: 2019-11-21
Packaged: 2021-02-16 13:00:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21508345
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilphros/pseuds/Ilphros
Summary: This started with a musing, and then inspiration, and was anchored entirely from the phrase, "From the unknown and the nothing, they came."It's a little short myth-style story about Arceus making the Pokemon world, and what humans offer to it.
Kudos: 3





	A Pokemon Creation Myth

From the unknown and the nothing, they came. Arceus, the origin, gazed upon Chaos and Emptiness and began to shape a world to admire and enjoy. From Chaos they drew forth Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina, three great dragons to define what could be. Palkia, to give space and define motion. Dialga, to give time and define certainty. And Giratina, to give symmetry[1] and define borders. In this way did Arceus draw forth the pillars and foundations of the world, the three great dragons, so that all else could be made.

By this drawing-forth and the power of the three, there was no longer Chaos and Emptiness, but the world. However, the young world was barren, separated from Emptiness only slightly. So Arceus began once again to create, shaping subtler principles into the world and drawing forth new creatures in multitudes, learning and being inspired as they went. These were living stones and strange spirits, mighty creatures and shy ones, all the most ancient of the spirit-beasts[2] of today both great and small. These early creations were set to shape the lands and the waters, to stir storms and magic, and to fill the world with every other kind of plant and beast. As they crafted each kind, Arceus whispered into their hearts all of the truths they would need, of understanding, of instinct, of power. In this way did Arceus know each of them, from the glimmer of an idea to the wholeness of life, and the world flourished. It was not a world without strife, nor one without hardship, but these things were kept in balance and so they too gave the world life in their own ways.

All these things, the many peoples agree on. What follows is one story of what happened next to the young world.

Each spirit-beast, from the three great dragons to the least spirit of a pebble, felt content, for they had their purposes and their truths, and knew nothing more or less. Each of them, save for Arceus. Arceus knew that the world was perfect, yet still felt deep in their heart that it was flawed in a way they could not name. And, unable to name the flaw, they could not mend it, and were unhappy. Arceus continued to create new creatures, giving them different forms and whispering different truths into their hearts, but each of them was content and none of them could help. In time, Arceus even created a creature and whispered no truths into its heart at all, not even the truth of understanding all spirit-beasts were given, and this creature was the first human.

Without truths of understanding, humans could not speak or know speech; without truths of instinct, humans were not born knowing what to do or what purpose they might have; without truths of power, humans were not able to do the things they wanted to do or protect themselves from predators. But the humans watched the world around them and began to learn. They listened to the whistling of birds and the growls of beasts, and began to make their own languages. They learned the ways of plants and animals, and began to know what they could do and invent purposes for themselves. They created simple tools and weapons and flames, and began to protect themselves and make their purposes real. Because no truths had been whispered into their hearts, they did not begin content or virtuous, but when they strove for what they lacked, they were able to find joys and virtues nonetheless.

In time, Arceus saw these creatures, who seemed almost wholly unlike the humans they had created, and watched them curiously. Gazing upon the humans, Arceus realized that there was something here that soothed their disquiet with the perfect, flawed world, though they still could not name the flaw, nor name what about the humans mended it. And so Arceus came in disguise and began to question the wise, and the virtuous, and the foolish, and the wicked – What made them different? What truth or power did this? Arceus learned much, but could not see how the learning of the humans was different from the learning of all the other spirit-beasts, and so became saddened.

One day, a small child saw Arceus in disguise. They did not know this was the Origin and Creator; they saw only that someone was sad, and decided to make them happy. In the way of children, they were fumbling and foolish. They set their face in a scowl, as if to scare away the unhappiness, and offered the disguised Arceus a red pebble, for it made the child happy and so they thought it could make anyone happy. Arceus saw the truth of the child’s desire to help, however, and was moved by that truth nonetheless. In time, Arceus began to visit that town more, seeing the child again, and each time the child would set their face in a scowl and offer some small treasure; a tuft of grass, a ball of cotton, a drawing of a cloud. As Arceus came more often and the child grew older and wiser, the two became friends, of a sort, but always with the distance of the disguise between them.

Nonetheless, Arceus was happier, and knew only that it was because of the child, now grown. And in time, Arceus decided to discard the disguise, and to both offer and beg a boon of the grown child. They revealed their true self and enough of their glory to be true without destroying their almost-friend, and said, “I have here a book of all the truths and names in the world, all that I have whispered into the hearts of every creature except for humans. I do not know why humans have joy and virtue anyway, but I know that you have made me happy, and so I want to both beg a boon of you, and offer one of my own, and they are the same thing. I beg of you, I offer you – write whatever truth you have that makes this so into my book, and it will become true for all the world.”

And the grown child – having suspected the disguised stranger of being someone special, but not so much, was struck dumb for several moments. But then, they laughed, and turned to the last page of the book of truths and names, and wrote the power humans had, so that all of the world could share it too:

**_“But, maybe this could change.”_ **

\---

[1] ‘Symmetry’, in the dialect which this story is derived from, has a meaning related to both separation and connection, otherness and self. It is generally agreed to mean some sort of metaphysical property which both allows things that are not alike to interact, and allows things that are alike to be separate. Changing languages clouded the already-dubious meaning of Giratina's power, and so some later myths remove mention of Giratina and instead treat Arceus as one of the 'three great dragons'.

[2]Pokémon, in modern parlance.

**Author's Note:**

> Does this story entirely satisfy me? No. The meaning I want to communicate is not completely clear, and the story writing itself could be better.
> 
> However, as far as I can currently see, to be clearer would require harming the story aesthetically, and improving the aesthetics would make the meaning less clear or not what I desired, so for now this will do.
> 
> Later Edit: Amusingly, after reviewing more of the relevant materials...  
> ...Arceus isn't confirmed to have made the first Giratina, and the Plates that Arceus uses apparently have something to do with 'defeated giants'.  
> Giratina is associated with Palkia and Dialga, but it's a little bit less clear than I thought!  
> Good thing I framed this as a myth.


End file.
